At Cardiff it operates six routes to destinations including Glasgow and Paris. Last year the airline accounted for around 18% of passengers using Cardiff – around 190,000.

Cardiff Airport’s head of commercial operations Spencer Birns said: “Our understanding of the announcement from Flybe is there will be no change to the current route network, so destinations and frequency of flights to and from Cardiff will not be affected.

“We appreciate how challenging the economic environment is and are in constant dialogue with all existing and potential airlines about flight services to and from Wales.”

A Flybe spokeswoman added: “Our operations at Cardiff Airport are unaffected by the announcement made today regarding the difficult decisions taken by Flybe to secure the business and to enable us to exploit further European potential.”

A spokesman for the Welsh Government said: “We maintain an excellent working relationship with Flybe and today’s announcement makes it clear that there will be no change to its current route network and whilst they operate five routes from Cardiff they do not have a base here, so there are no staffing/job loss implications for Wales either.”

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